Trial begins in JSU student's death

JACKSON — More than two years after the body of then-missing Jackson State University student Latasha Norman was found in a wooded area, her alleged killer is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday.

Twenty-six-year-old Stanley Cole faces life in prison if convicted in the death of Norman, a former girlfriend.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin in Hinds County Circuit Court Tuesday and take two days to complete. Court officials tell The Clarion-Ledger that the trial could last two weeks and jurors won’t be sequestered.

The 20-year-old Norman was reported missing after attending an afternoon class Nov. 13, 2007. Her badly decomposed body was discovered Nov. 29 in a wooded area of north Jackson, the same day Cole was arrested and charged with murder.